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Soprano Véronique Gens brings love of French music to Cleveland debut

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by Stephanie Manning

Véronique Gens feels a special connection to Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, a piece she’s performed for decades all around the world. But the 30-minute song cycle isn’t an easy one, both in length and in character.

“It’s a difficult cycle for your mind and for your soul, because the text is so sad and so depressive,” the soprano said in a recent interview. “But it’s a beautiful cycle.”

I reached Gens by phone in France, while she was preparing for her final performance at this year’s Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. While the piece may not be very upbeat, Gens sounded very excited to make her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra. She will join them at Blossom Music Center on Saturday, July 20 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Summers at Severance makes triumphant return (July 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

In between their already-packed schedule at Blossom Music Center, the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra appeared at their usual venue — Severance Music Center — for an exciting offering on July 11. Returning after a five-year absence, the Summers at Severance series kicked off with a high-quality evening of Mandel Concert Hall debuts.

Conductor Oksana Lyniv, joining the Orchestra for the first time, brought a graceful precision and strong sense of tempo to the podium. The synergy between conductor and orchestra was evident from the opening piece, Leoš Janáček’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen, [Read more…]

A peaceful afternoon at Classically Lake View (July 7)

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by Stephanie Manning

Choosing a mausoleum as a concert venue might imply a more somber occasion, but the atmosphere was distinctly lighthearted at the Classically Lake View concert on July 7. Held in the Lake View Cemetery’s Community Mausoleum on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a string quartet of Cleveland Orchestra members and an Oberlin student guitarist presented a spirited program of chamber music by Black composers.

First violinist Liyuan Xie confidently led the quartet as they kicked things off with two movements from Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ String Quartet No. 3, Op. 1. Despite the unconventional indoor space, the small stage helped with projection and the blend between the four musicians kept a balanced timbre. (Probably best not to add any wind instruments into the mix with that echo, though.) [Read more…]

Imani Winds captivate in Kent Blossom debut (July 3)

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by Stephanie Manning

Given Imani Winds’ active touring schedule, it’s not unusual to see the group revisit the same part of the U.S. within a few months. So while it might feel like the wind quintet was just here for their March performance in Oberlin, July 3 saw them return to Northeast Ohio to appear on the Kent Blossom Music Festival’s Faculty Concert Series in Ludwig Recital Hall. Thankfully, this proximity was no issue — Imani is a group worth hearing again and again.

The evening’s program, “Black and Brown II: A Celebration of Composers of Color,” was understandably similar to the one from March, although not without some notable changes. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra revives Summers at Severance series

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by Stephanie Manning

Four years on from pandemic disruptions, some ensembles are still working on returning to 100% of their pre-2020 programming. Case in point from this summer: The Cleveland Orchestra, which is reviving its Summers at Severance series for the first time in five years.

“As we’ve been coming back to ‘normal,’ there is definitely an appetite for more of our classical offerings during the summer,” artistic administrator Michael Gandlmayr said in a recent interview. While the Orchestra’s home at this time of year is unquestionably Blossom Music Center, performing a few times at Severance Music Center gives audiences more options to enjoy their programming. “It’s also a great opportunity for us to see some new and returning faces, both on the podium as well as soloists.”

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland celebrates season finale on the dance floor (June 29)

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by Stephanie Manning

After a whirlwind three weeks of concerts, ChamberFest Cleveland ended this year’s season with a dance party. And not just any dance party: Aaron Jay Kernis’ joyfully eccentric 100 Greatest Dance Hits, which fully embodies the thematic mix of “Sacred and Profane.”

But while the Kernis gives classical forms an injection of the profane — the music associated with the here-and-now, our day-to-day life  — the June 29 program also reveled in the traditionally sacred. It opened with J.S. Bach’s dignified Concerto No. 1 in d, played in a combination that swapped harpsichord for piano and traded a string orchestra for a quartet, plus bass.

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a four-course meal during “Innocence and Experience” (June 26)

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by Stephanie Manning

ChamberFest Cleveland’s June 26 concert had stiffer competition than usual, with The Cleveland Orchestra simultaneously performing for Wade Oval Wednesdays right down the street. But you wouldn’t have known it from the packed house that filled Mixon Hall that evening at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The program, titled “Innocence and Experience,” marked the long-awaited festival debut of guitarist Jason Vieaux. (Although the venue was no doubt familiar to him — he’s taught at CIM since 1997.) Vieaux and his fellow musicians kicked off the program with Luigi Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D, a lively piece with the subtitle “Fandango.”

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: transporting listeners into “Other Worlds” (June 22)

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by Stephanie Manning

Hearing the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” was not on my ChamberFest Cleveland bingo card. But Brandon Ridenour had other ideas.

“Antonio Vivaldi was the Paul McCartney of his time,” the trumpet player told the audience at the festival’s June 22 concert. Accompanied by string quartet, Ridenour brought his arrangements of both the Beatles and the Baroque to the program — titled “In Other Worlds” — and made a pretty strong case for the connection between 18th-century opera and 1960s pop.

[Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: everything free and easy at Me And My Girl (June 20)

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by Stephanie Manning

Not only is it a challenge to walk out of Me and My Girl without the music stuck in your head, it’s also a challenge to pick which of the many songs you might be humming.

The charming, feel-good 1937 musical — with music by Noel Gay and book/lyrics by Douglas Furger & L. Arthur Rose — may not be much of a household name these days. But after its original success in London’s West End, a revised book by Stephen Frey and Mike Ockrent in the 1980s made the show a huge hit across the pond on Broadway. And the Ohio Light Opera’s dazzling premiere makes it easy to see why.

[Read more…]

ENCORE: Voice of the Dunkleosteus (June 15)

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by Stephanie Manning

Perhaps nothing exemplifies a festival themed around “Planet Earth” quite like a concert performed underneath a prehistoric fish. Specifically, the 359-million-year-old Dunkleosteus terrelli, known as “ancient Ohio’s apex predator.” But you can just call him Dunk.

The ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival drew a packed crowd at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on June 15, and audience members were in for a treat at this concert in the visitor hall. The skeleton of Dunk may have been the closest to the action, but the bright and airy space was filled with other neat creatures for attendees to peruse. (On the left was a reconstruction of Lucy, the most famous human ancestor fossil, and to the right were the bones of Happy, a “reptile hipped” dinosaur.)

[Read more…]

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